Culture

5 'Game of Thrones' Facts Every Fan Should Know

This post contains spoilers from Game of Thrones Seasons 1-4. Read at your own discretion.

Game of Thrones Season 4 comes to a close on Sunday, leaving you as cold and lonely as Jon Snow north of the Wall. But before you must leave the Night's Watch, it's time to get your brain as sharp as a Valyrian sword.

From hidden Easter eggs (ahem, dragon eggs) within the hit HBO series to changes in characters from George R.R. Martin's novels, these facts will make you more clever than Littlefinger is creepy (and that's a lot).

6 Blunt Character Changes HBO Made to 'Game of Thrones'

1. Daario Naharis

Many folks who are only fans of the show don't realize that Daenerys Targaryen's current love interest hails from Tyrosh; a land whose people are known for wearing bright colors and frequently dyeing their hair to match. Daario is descripted by George R.R. Martin as having blue hair and a blue, tri-forked beard. The tips of his mustache are dyed gold, matching a golden tooth.

2. Tyrion Lannister

Tyrion's physical appearance in the book series is drastically different than portrayed in the show. Much of the contrast stems from book-Tyrion's lack of nose, which he lost in the Battle of Blackwater. Book-Tyrion is also described as notably uglier than actor Peter Dinklage, having a jutting forehead, mismatched eyes and a severely stunted leg.

3. Jorah Mormont

In the show, Targaryen spy-turned-ally Ser Jorah Mormont is a strong-jawed, blonde George Clooney -- minus the ladies. In A Song of Ice and Fire, Ser Jorah is described as more of a George Costanza, with a thick neck, bald head and a massive amount of coarse black body hair.

4. Tywin Lannister

Apparently, sideburns aren't intimidating enough. Game of Thrones showrunners decided to bypass Martin's vision of the Lord of Casterly Rock, which describes him as completely bald, with large, wiry golden side-whiskers.

5. White Walkers

The eerie death-reaping White Walkers, known largely as "the others" in the book series were described by Martin in an email to the illustrator of the graphic novel adaptation of the series. According to Martin, the creatures are, "beautiful," yet "inhuman, elegant, dangerous."

The show's white walkers are many things, but beautiful is not one of them.

6. The Iron Throne

One of the shows most important symbols is the Iron Throne itself. It's more a character than most of the smaller lords and lordlings combined. Made of thousands of swords, supposedly taken from the enemies of Aegon the Conqueror.

In a post on his personal website, Martin revealed that the show's symmetrical, relatively small Iron Throne wasn't accurate, as his version was "HUGE, hulking, black and twisted."

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